Neighbors line up outside of middle school to protest proposed Briargate apartment complex
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)-- Protesters lined the streets outside Mountain Ridge Middle School Friday, upset about a plan to rezone a nearby lot into a complex with three-story apartment buildings.
The out-of-town developer, Titan Development, has applied to rezone a property in the Briargate area on Dynamic Drive.
The protesters, mostly residents from the nearby Summerfield neighborhood, acknowledge the city needs more housing, but they'd love a compromise on single-family homes, or lower profile affordable housing apartments.
As school dismissed and students exited the building, a crowd of about 30 chanted, "No to Allaso!", the name of the proposed complex.
"The issue here is the location of it," David Shiller, a Summerfield neighbor said, claiming it would add too much density to the area.
The rezoning would lead to 251 new apartment units being built on the site of a current parking lot.
"The apartments are 50 yards basically behind the houses," Shiller told KRDO. "It's going to be three-story buildings. The biggest thing that you see as you look west from the houses is going to be this particular apartment complex."
Titan says its' property will not block any views and will sit 15-30 feet below the neighbors.
But that's not the only issue according to people living in Summerhill. They don't buy the results of the traffic study paid for by Titan.
"They missed the peak time. They missed the kids coming out of school. If you have one data point to base your whole traffic study on, they picked the wrong point. They need to look at several times," Shiller said.
Titan disagrees with that too, saying the City of Colorado Springs approved the study and it'll only add four cars per hour to the roads in the area.
Titan has already agreed to reduce the number of units from 300 down to 251. The company says the complex will not include affordable housing though and will be rented at the market rate.
The neighbors plan to show up to the city planning commission hearing next Thursday.
